Carrie Fisher Talks About How “Leia Has Changed” in The Force Awakens

In a recent interview with Time Magazine, Carrie Fisher talks about the transformation of her iconic character, Leia Organa, from princess to general in The Force Awakens.

Fisher says that while she didn’t really have to think twice about taking the role, as she’s “a female and in Hollywood it’s difficult to get work after 30—maybe it’s getting to be 40 now,” the original Star Wars films weren’t as rip-roaring a good time as people might imagine. When asked if she’d missed making Star Wars movies, she said:

That unstable I’m not. I miss being young, that was fun. They were fun to make. Not to the degree I imagine people think they were, like playing on a jungle gym. They’re not fun like that because there’s early calls and, as you get older, there are memory issues and pressure with that. But I was glad to do it.

Leia has done a lot of growing up since she was last on-screen:

Oh my God, she got so much older. I tried to stop her, but apparently that includes death so that didn’t seem like a good solution. Along with aging comes life experience so in every way that is consistent with even being human, Leia has changed.

Fisher acknowledges and accepts that she will always be associated with Leia. One of the big changes she made to the character (and to herself)? Less makeup:

I’ve seen pictures of myself with makeup on and I look like those women who look like they’re wearing makeup so they can look young, and I don’t think that’s good. They have all these products now called—wait, what’s it called, it’s my favorite—youth suppressant, or age go away, they don’t work. I didn’t wear a lot of makeup to begin with and I was always—you have to be very careful with that stuff. It really annoys me that I’m vain, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to discard that tendency.